Vote For A Fall Schedule Kills Franchise
Despite losing millions of dollars and only winning three games, the Maulers were competitive in most games and they had reasonable fan support for a first year team. DeBartolo was determined to stick it out, even going as far as hiring Hank Bullough away from the Buffalo Bills to become the new head coach.
However, just a few days later the USFL announced that they were switching to a fall schedule in 1986. DeBartolo was a strong believer in the USFL's original spring football concept, and he knew he could not hope to compete with the Pittsburgh Steelers. A move to Cleveland, closer to DeBartolo's home in Youngstown, was quickly ruled out; even without the daunting task of competing with the Cleveland Browns to consider, it is not likely that Cleveland fans would have accepted a refugee from Pittsburgh. As a result, just a week after the vote to move to the fall DeBartolo folded the franchise without so much as a press conference.
Read more about this topic: Pittsburgh Maulers
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